Users typically search for items such as consumer products and other goods and services on the Internet. Users may submit their query by entering a query into a field of a search engine or a field provided by a merchant website. However, because of ambiguities inherent in language, the intent of the query, i.e. what the user was actually searching for, may not be clear based on the query.
For example, a user may provide the query “trimmer” to an online merchant. The query “trimmer” may apply to variety of product types such as hair trimmers, nail trimmers, beard trimmers, lawn trimmers, and hedge trimmers. Because users may become frustrated if provided with incorrect results, the intent of a query (e.g., such as a product category) may be determined before providing results based on the query.